刀
Tap the pinyin to hear it
knife; blade; single-edged sword; cutlass (CL:把[ba3]); (slang) (loanword) dollar; classifier for sets of one hundred sheets (of paper); classifier for knife cuts or stabs; (Internet slang) to bargain; to ask for a small discount (esp. on second-hand marketplaces); (Internet slang) to knife (sb) (often used hyperbolically, as in 想刀他[xiang3 dao1 ta1] "I could kill him!")
- HSK 3.0
- Level 3
- Old HSK
- Level 4
- Strokes
- 2
- Radical
- 刀 itself
- Structure
- Upper-right enclosure 右上包
- Traditional
- 刀
- Common rank
- #406
- Unicode
- U+5200
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
How 刀 is formed
How to remember it
sword · Heisig RSH #83
— as a component also called: dagger, saber
Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.
Words with 刀
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 天上下刀子 | lit. knives rain down from the sky (idiom); fig. (even if) the sky crumbles | |
| 上刀山，下火海 | lit. to climb mountains of swords and enter seas of flames (idiom); fig. to go through tri… | |
| 刀山火海 | lit. mountains of daggers and seas of flames; fig. extreme danger (idiom) | |
| 火海刀山 | see 刀山火海[dao1 shan1 huo3 hai3] | |
| 大刀会 | Great Sword Society, an offshoot of the White Lotus in the late Qing dynasty, involved in … | |
| 小刀会 | Dagger Society, anti-Qing secret society who mounted an unsuccessful rebellion in 1855 | |
| 开山刀 | machete | |
| 日本刀 | Japanese sword; katana | |
| 刀子 | knife; CL:把[ba3] | |
| 大刀 | broadsword; large knife; machete | |
| 美工刀 | utility knife; box cutter | |
| 马刀 | saber; cavalry sword | |
| 小刀 | knife; CL:把[ba3] | |
| 手刀 | hand formed into a flat shape, as for a karate chop | |
| 色字头上一把刀 | lit. there is a knife above the character for lust; fig. lascivious activities can lead to… | |
| 宝刀不老 | lit. a good sword always remains sharp (idiom); fig. (of one's skills etc) to be as good a… | |
| 利刀 | sharp knife; knife (weapon) | |
| 刀口 | the edge of a knife; cut; incision | |
| 两面三刀 | two-faced, three knives (idiom); double-cross; double dealing and back stabbing | |
| 主刀 | to act as the chief surgeon; chief surgeon |
Sound family
These characters use 刀 as their sound component — compare how they read.